Now We're Never Getting Nintendo TVii in Europe

Which service was Nintendo TVii again? Oh yeah, the cable/programme guide thing. In case anyone was waiting for that Wii U service to launch here, you can officially stop waiting now—Nintendo of Europe has given up because it's too hard.

It's one thing to take a single country and get all of its cable providers on board in order to transformer your Wii control pad into a universal remote that hardly anyone uses. In Europe, with our individual countries and languages and late-night German trivia call-in shows and phone sex ads, it's nearly impossible. So Nintendo decided to stop trying.

At Nintendo of Europe, we continue to challenge ourselves to develop a range of entertaining experiences for all to enjoy. Due to the extremely complex nature of localising multiple television services across a diverse range of countries with varied licensing systems, regrettably we have taken the decision not to launch the Nintendo TVii service within the European region. Although on this occasion we did not anticipate such challenges, we will always strive to develop a range of entertaining experiences for all our users to enjoy.

I was actually rather excited about Nintendo TVii when the company first showed off the feature prior to the launch of the Wii U. Then the system launched, I set it up once, and never used it again. Until I saw this announcement via Game Informer, I had completely forgotten that Nintendo TVii ever existed.

All the advice I can offer is try find solace in your currently exclusive Nintendo Anime Channel for the 3DS, with its reruns of Kirby, Pokemon: Advanced and Inazuma Eleven.

This article originally appeared on Kotaku UK, our gaming-obsessed site. Check them out for original reporting, gaming culture, and humour.